Category: what if

Here’s this month’s selection of What Ifs to help stimulate your writer’s brain. Let’s see what can you do with these! Some are deliberately vague or ambiguous so you can interpret them in different ways.

** NEW for 2017 ** We’ll be discussing these What Ifs in our Facebook group each day!We’ll post each day’s What If in the group first thing in the morning (UK time) and we’ll post our thoughts (i.e. Dave’s thoughts) in the early evening, including how we think you could best turn it a story. We hope you’ll join in too – just leave a comment under that day’s entry.
Our Facebook group is open to everyone. Just go to the group and click on the Join button.

The What Ifs for January and February, including Dave’s thoughts about them, are already in the group. Here are the ones we’ll be discussing during March:

1. you saw your name spelled out in the sky?

2. you had the magic touch?

3. you didn’t have any favourites?

4. you could only taste one flavour?

5. ghosts definitely existed and lived among us?

6. everyone owned at least one bomb?

7. you could only see the colour blue?

8. you owned your own museum?

9. you woke up to find you had a tattoo on your face?

10. your experience was not the same as everyone else’s?

11. your mileage varied?

12. you signed a petition but it had unforeseen consequences?

13. your local undertaker was a notorious crook?

14. you stuck rigidly to your principles?

15. your teaching methods were ridiculed?

16. your grandfather took you to a secret shed and revealed something astonishing to you? (He may be dead, which makes the story more interesting!)

17. you were regarded as an easy target?

18. you were determined to make the list of the top ten most famous people of this century?

19. you witnessed a crime that didn’t happen?

20. you advertised a service you had no ability to do?

21. humans had nine lives?

22. all advertising was banned?

23. you could only write well when you were in pain?

24. you knocked a cyclist off his bike but didn’t hang around to see if he was okay?

25. you were given a second chance?

26. people started dying and the only connection was that they had been reading one of your books when it happened?

27. your home was haunted by a ghost that could see into the future?

28. your child kept inventing things?

29. you felt compelled to investigate an unsolved crime – and then discovered that you had committed it?

30. you could have prevented or avoided the problem but you let it happen anyway?

31. you made more money from failing at things than you did from succeeding?

If you’d like to send in a What If for us to discuss in the Facebook group please email it to: mail@ideas4writers.co.uk or leave a comment in the group.

If you’ve come up with a really great What If that you’re planning to use in a story and you’d like our thoughts on it, but without anyone else seeing it, we can do that too! (There’s a small charge to cover our time – and a 50% discount for lifetime members – see below.) Email us at the address above for more details.

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers
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If you go to the ideas4writers Facebook group you’ll see an exciting new feature. Each day we’re choosing one of the What Ifs we posted on the blog at the beginning of each month, and we’re discussing it in depth, expanding and enlarging on it, and looking at the story possibilities in each one. I hope you find it useful. It’s certainly stretching my imagination!

The Facebook group is open to anyone who wants to join. Just go to the group and click the Join button and I’ll grant you access the next time I’m on Facebook. You don’t need to be a member of the ideas4writers website or the blog. Your friends can join too – just let them know where to find us. The more people who join, the better the discussions should be, and the more ideas we’ll get for bigger and better stories.

If you’re a member of the ideas4writers website, you might have spotted that our forum software has died. We’re going to redesign the site over the next few months, so it seems silly to replace the forum software with something else, only to have to scrap it again when the new site launches. So we’re using the Facebook group as our forum for now, and directing all our members there instead.

When the new website launches, the forum will be at the front of the site, not hidden away in the members’ section, so everyone will be able to use it.

DAVE’S NEWS

I hope you’ve made a great start to your writing in 2017. I have huge plans for the year, and I’ve made a big wall chart with all the projects and timelines I’ll be working on. It looks … scary. But just about doable with a lot of work (and no procrastinating).

You might know that I get most of my ideas while I’m out walking, so when I saw the Walk 1,000 Miles in 2017 challenge, I immediately signed up for it. As I write this I’ve just completed the walk for day 9 and my total so far is 33 miles (8 miles more than the target) so it’s going well – I could even afford to take a couple of days off. Snow is forecast for the end of the week, which might limit the walks for a few days. (But I’ll believe it when I see it – it rarely snows here.)

I’m planning to do some longer walks over the summer. There are about 50 walking routes through the Blackdown Hills, about 20 minutes from here, that I haven’t explored yet. I’m also part of a walking group, but they only walk on Wednesday evenings between May and August.

If I’m walking on my own (which is most of the time – the rest of the family are not walkers!) I take my phone and headphones with me and listen to podcasts to keep me company. They help the miles fly by, and don’t inhibit the flow of ideas. I have Evernote on my phone, so it’s easy to note down (or speak) each idea as it occurs, or take a quick photo, and file it in the relevant section.

The podcasts I listen to are: The Creative Penn, the Sell More Books Show, Write 2B Read, and a new one called the Book Launch Show. I also download and listen to the Radio 4 shows The News Quiz and the The Now Show when they’re on – but they’re not on at the moment.

I must leave you now as it’s 9 pm and I have a chapter to write before bedtime. I hope to connect with you in the Facebook group. Or I’ll see you here this time next week with 50 Newsworthy Anniversaries in July 2017 for you to write about.

Happy New Year! Here’s this month’s selection of What Ifs to stimulate your writing brain. Let’s see what can you do with these! Some are deliberately vague or ambiguous so you can interpret them in different ways.

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Hello! Here’s this month’s selection of What Ifs to stimulate your writing brain. Let’s see what can you do with these! Some are deliberately vague or ambiguous so you can interpret them in different ways.

Like this:

Hello! Here’s this month’s selection of What Ifs to stimulate your writing brain. Let’s see what can you do with these! Some are deliberately vague or ambiguous so you can interpret them in different ways.

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